Via the Yahoo! SVG Developer mailing list.
Now that Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 is making its way to the more general public, an increasing number of people are wondering why they are not able to see some SVG content in the Firefox browser. Apparently the SVG examples on Adobe's SVG Zone are the biggest culprits, with a Mozilla representative stating that they are non-compliant, yet are rendered by the less-strict Adobe SVG Viewer. An Adobe representative has admitted that the SVG content on their websites are largely non-compliant, that they had been informed several months ago but have not been able to update the content to make it compliant.
Unfortunately these types of issues are just going to cause problems with perception of Mozilla's SVG implementation, since they are the relative newcomer to the SVG implementation space. But the fact that the Adobe employee has admitted this, certainly makes it easier for Mozilla to justify their decisions to enforce stricter compliance.
Another potential cause for concern is that Windows 98, ME and 2000 users may have to download GDI+ with the new Firefox 1.5 Beta to get SVG support. Yet another possible hiccup in the whole process. I guess I'm now reversing my opinion and I think Mozilla should switch over to the Cairo backend to avoid these issues (at the loss of some speed).
On a side note, I notice that Adobe now has a Flash video playing on their home page. Is this a harbinger of the Adobe/Macromedia merger or did they always use Flash? I also notice the strange new slogan: "Better BuyBy Adobe". Almost sounds like a threat...
At first you could think of this as Mozilla’s fault. Why they can’t just render the stuff even if it is not compliance with standard? But that is root of all evil. We all have seen what it made to html when browsers just rendered the content no matter what was wrong with it. If svg standard is going to be expanded in future, it is mandatory that viewers/render engines do not handle content which is not legal svg.
Well, I think I do understand what Adobe is doing and why they are doing it…
LOL. Mozilla used to be strict with HTML, too, but that went out the window in a grab for market share. If the Adobe SVG examples are creating a bad impression of Mozilla, the only thing Mozilla can do is make their SVG code a little more forgiving as well. It’s so sad how short-term market forces seem to dictate the direction on important issues such as this.
Win98, Me or 2000 users may often have the .NET framework installed, which includes the GDIPlus.dll
So, to save the time of a download, users of those operating systems could search their computers for the file. Likely many have it, since .net framework is a download microsoft pushes.
They can then copy the file to their firefox directory.
crf, Firefox 1.5 uses cairo now, they deprecated the GDI+ support before release.